As I look back through boxes of slides, I catch myself wondering what happened to everyone. In some cases I know. Age and the evils of life extracted a price from many. For others, choices the circumstances have shaped where they are and what they have become. For many, there is very little to go on with my limited and brief glimpses from a long ways off.
My observation of what I have seen, especially when the focus improves after catching up, is that externals are rarely the real story. It would be easy to echo David’s old observation, “Look! Those who left you are falling apart! Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again.” (Psalm 73.27) Yet, as true as David’s observation often is, there is often more than what you initially see.
As I consider what I have found in my search for some, Life reminds me that there are multiple lessons for my journey.
Externals such as clothes and other material possessions never tell the story of the person inside. They may be indicators, but they are not the facts. The things in one’s life could come compassion driven actions as well as manipulation and exploitation. Success in the world’s eyes is never the same as what one’s heart defines. Failure can be the result of things in your control as well as things outside. Externals are just that, things outside of one’s heart, mind, and soul.
Relationships take two, not just one. The choices one makes is an external indicator, but just half of it. There is a deep story to be heard and understood when one observes and experiences the actions between true friends.
Quiet, often unmemorable, choices and decisions tell more about an individual than any individual intends to tell. They reveal the heart. They give life to the values within. They explain priorities and aspirations.
Every picture and memory introduces a story. The story continues to unfold in the present. In seeing the externals around me, I can re-examine my externals because there is more to learn than I thought.
